Little Girl's Hairstyles -Cute Puffy Braids 7-10 min

My cute little neighbor came over to play, and her hair was so cute, I had to take a picture of it.

I love how this shows this style can be done on short hair and long hair.

I loved it so much, I did it on my girl the next day. She did her own makeup. If you need a good distraction for your girl while doing her hair, just hand her some lipstick and eyeliner.

We both did angle parts on top, with wet hair. Continue parting off in sections, however big, and pull the previous pony into the next, continuing down each side.

I love continuing the ponys all the way down the hair. I slick them down with a bit of hair gel, and they stay in pretty darn well.

Little Girl's Hairstyles -Quick back twist 1-3 min

This one was born from my usual trying to get out the door routine: I realize that we have to leave in 5 minutes, and I haven't done no. 2's hair yet. Awesome.

Her ends are covering the cute twist braid, but you'll see it more as we go along.

Start with wet hair, and I chose to do an angle part.

Comb it down into a low pony. This would also work well with a higher pony.

Split the pony into two sections. Start twisting two sections in same direction, doing a twist braid.

Wrap two sections around each other in opposite direction, down to ends.

Holding the end tightly, bring the twist braid up on one side, trying to angle the ends behind the top of the braid (rather than making a loop). Twist the ends in the direction they are going, and it will pull it in tighter.

Secure tightly with an elastic close to the head.

After putting in elastic.

I pulled her ends out straight with my fingers and smoothed them down over the twisted bun. If the ends are too short, then you could spike them up. It just depends on where you want to put a bow, if at all.

I took a lot of pictures of the back to try to show you what the bun looked like best. Spray well with hairspray, and you are out the door!

Never Never Never

This is more a note to myself than for anyone else. But, if you are like me, and think to yourself when you see that one piece of hair that "just needs a tad bit of tweaking", and oh heck, "I can fix that!"--STOP thinking that.
I even went to cosmetology school (didn't finish, yes, like Frenchy), and so that thought process is EVER more present in my head than it should be. "Oh come on Shaunell, you could just snip it a little bit. Certainly you can trim your OWN bangs. You aren't completely without hair knowledge. Do it. DO IT!"
Again, when you hear the voices, immediately, and I mean immediately STEP AWAY from the scissors. Put them down carefully and slowly, don't break eye contact, and back off! YOU WILL regret it if you do not.

I know this, because I have done this, OH SO many times. And I always wish I hadn't. It's like eating that big fat brownie late at night, when feeling hungry, and you know it's just because you are tired and should really just go to bed. You always regret it the next day.

I know. I am sitting in a huge pile of wish I-hadn't-tried-modifying-my-new-haircut regret right now.

But, on a happier note, I will be posting how to do a basic haircut later on. But not on myself. Other people's hair I CAN cut. Just never never never my own.

Happy Thursday!

Little Girl's Hairstyles -The Quad 15-20 min

This idea....like so many others, started out as something else. Then I got stumped. My husband, seeing my dilemma, offered an oh-so-timid suggestion. I thought, "what the heck", and tried it out, and voila! Sometimes it works, sometimes it's a quick ponytail day. Luckily for me, this one turned out nicely (especially since I was in a NOT so nice mood already. Another story for another time.Good hair = nicer mommy).

Start with the usual super soaked head. Part off front section to middle of ears like so.

I did an inside out braid (of course) just in the middle of the section, and braided down as far as I could.

I did the same on the other side, and pulled them together low in the back. Pull them tight when securing them with the elastic.

Next, I flipped those braids back over her face (oh they love that), and parted the rest down the middle. To begin the french braid, I parted off a small section on an angle, since I wanted this to angle down around the curve of her head, and not just straight down (thus showing off the joined braids more).

French braid down a little past her head, and secure with pony. I flipped back over the joined braids for the full effect here.

Do a matching french braid on the other side.

Braid down past her hairline again (this helps keep those little neck hairs from being pulled on when you slap it all together).

Use your third hand, and pull them all together.If you are feeling adventurous, you could braid the tail of the joined braids down past the elastic......but like I said, my mood was not an adventurous one at the time.

Pull it all in nicely, and then I braided the bottom portion. If the hair isn't long enough, then you can skip this part and leave it in a pony.

And Kapow! I was secretly thrilled on my insides with how cute it turned out. I love when I can admire my work all day long. Which is what I did with this one. It was just that cute.

See? She knows Mom is happy at this point.

Want to know the best part about this hair style? It turned out to be a two day do. It stayed in well through the night, and in the morning, I undid all the braids, pulled the two front sections into little ponys. Because these two smaller sections were way more kinky than the rest, I just pulled them back into a low pony, like they were in the joined braids, and stuck a bow in it. It was marvelous for church. Fast and lovely.

Little Girl's Hairstyles -"A" puffy braids with stuffed buns 7-10 min

So now that I've started this blog, I notice that whenever I shut my eyes, I see hair. Hair this way, hair that way. And for some funny reason, I keep seeing puffy braids in the shapes of letters. Maybe it's because I'm doing preschool at home with this little one, and we are learning how to write the alphabet. So, here we have it. My attempt at the letter A. Maybe I'll try all 26!

Start with wet hair and parted in a small square about 1 1/2 inches all the way around.

This is just to show the next section of hair that I parted off, another larger square.

Divide that section down the middle and part existing pony in half and split between the two new ponys.

Next, part another larger square on one side, as shown, and pull top pony in. Next, part a middle square, like the very first square, and pull half of previous pony in.

Finish with completing the last square, as shown, pulling half of middle pony in, and the pony above it.

Split remaining hair down the center, and pull two remaining halves of bottom ponys into a stuffed bun (see how to do a stuffed bun).  If her hair is long enough, like my girl's here, just keep stuffing second half in and adjusting hair so it doesn't look like just two halves, but more messy and unprecise. I will stuff in with one finger and then another, sorta like typing. :)

On the other side, do the same thing. Here I wasn't happy with how my 'stuffing' turned out, so here's a fix:

Adjust the hair so it's more rounded and even, and then slip a clear elastic around it, and if necessary, you can stuff more hair into that.

I like it looking more 'piecey' rather than two big folds.

Stick in some pretty bows....give it a good spritz of the 'spray....

And it's "A" winner! Okay...so it's more of a triangle. We'll have to manage.

This top part would also work great for shorter hair. You can skip the bun part and just make little ponys.

Little Girl's Hairstyles -Slide up (or squished) braids with twist braids 10-15 min

I didn't make up these cute slide up braids, but I love them because they are really unique. You have to be creative in how you use them, due to the long ends that hang out, so this is my favorite way of incorporating them.

I do two ponys off a center part, hair thoroughly soaked.

Loosely braid the pony down to the ends.

Pull off two strands to the right, holding tightly to the one remaining. Make sure the one you hold onto is long enough to keep a good grip on.

Holding tightly to the one piece, start working the braid up the strand, keeping everything tight.

When it gets hard to move the hair, just work a squished section farther up, and continue.

This is about how much I get out of her length of hair. But it's super cute! Put in your elastic when it's all the way to the top.

Both sides done. Part the rest of hair down the center.

Pull squished braid into ponytail.

I did two twist braids down the rest of her hair.

For a twist braid, part the section you want into two sections, and thoroughly wet hair.

Start twisting both pieces in the same direction, and then start wrapping around each other in opposite direction at the same time. See my other twist braid posts for more pics.

Stick in some cute bows (I made these) and you are done!

Here's another version I did on my other daughter. I just did a ponytail with a bunch of squished braids. Her hair is curly, so the ends curled by themselves and looked ok left like that. And yes. We were bowling, and I was busying myself taking pictures of my girls' hairdos. Typical.